[support] Re: Cool trick for opening locally hosted ebase

[Carl Paulsen]

Interesting. I'm not sure what the * means. I've created Open Ebase files for clients on networks that use a script which opens ebase.102 or .103 via the Hosts option. Almost, if not, identical to what you have. My file opens ebase.10x (whichever you select) via Hosts IF ebase has been opened on the Hosts machine. To use this step, you need to first have ebase open on the Host machine. Then, on the guest machine, create a blank FMP file, called something like Open Ebase, and leave it blank (no fields, no records). Create a script which has one step, an Open File step. Click Specify, and in the resulting Open File dialog box, click the Hosts button and navigate to the ebase.10x file. Then click the Open button. Lastly, edit the document preferences to have this script open when the file opens. This file should open ebase properly if ebase is open on the Host. If it isn't, it shouldn't be able to open the database, which is, after all, the way you should run ebase. This script can then be modified to open whatever version of ebase you have, simply by re-specifying the file to open (by going through the specify, Hosts, etc. steps mentioned above. In any case, I believe the script you have can be re-directed to a newer version of ebase by simply re-specifying the file to open in that script, as I've explained above.

BTW, you can include a "close" step in the "opening" script that runs when this file opens that will close the Open Ebase file after opening ebase (yours appears to have a "close" step but it doesn't specify the file to close, and when I opened the file, it didn't automatically close itself). But that makes it tough to edit or change the file. Better to add the Open Ebase file to the "804 - Close" script in the Names file so that this file closes when you close ebase.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Recently upon visiting one of our affiliates I discovered a cool trick originally created by Jack Knoll (a.k.a. The Wiz). Some of you may have already discovered this and I'm just a bit slow, but for those of you like me, here's how it works.

When opening a Filemaker db on the network as a guest, I've always used the HOSTS button on the open file dialog to find the correct file. This works fine, but requires 4 clicks.

By simply adding the attached file "Open E-base.fp5" to your desktop, you can use only 1 click to access the hosted file. Just dbl-click this file and it will browse the network for any file named ebase.102 that is available. How? the attached file has a script that is executed when you open it and searches for ebase.102(*). The * is the location, when the network file is up, it will quickly find it and open as if you selected HOSTS from the Filemaker dialog.

So here's the question for you savvy FM developers... How does one change this script to open a file with a different name (e.g. ebase.103). I've tried to specify the file but it will only allow me to select an actual file and will not give me the opportunity to use the *.

So for all of you with ebase.102, go for it. For anyone else, can you help me change it?



Tompkins Spann
Assistant Director - Field Technology
Constituency Development, NARAL
202-973-3065 (DC office)
202-421-8678 (Cell)
410-243-7324 (Home office)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

--
Carl Paulsen
8 Hamilton St.
Dover, NH 03820
603-749-2310
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




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